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Kacey Musgraves’ ‘Middle of Nowhere’ Debuts at No. 1 on 3 Billboard Album Charts
Kacey Musgraves’ Middle of Nowhere opens at No. 1 on three Billboard album charts and posts her biggest vinyl sales week yet.
Kacey Musgraves has opened Middle of Nowhere with the kind of chart run that tends to say as much about timing as it does about audience. The album arrives at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales, while also landing in the top 10 on seven Billboard charts dated May 16.
On the broader field, the singer-songwriter’s sixth studio album enters at No. 2 on both Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums, No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 10 on Top Streaming Albums. That spread points to a release that’s doing well across formats rather than leaning on one lane alone, with physical sales especially doing the heavy lifting.
The project logged 100,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the tracking week ending May 7, giving Musgraves her biggest week yet by units. More than 37,000 of those came from vinyl, which also marks her strongest vinyl sales week to date. For an artist whose career has increasingly reflected the split between streaming-era consumption and old-school collector behavior, that detail matters.
Musgraves announced Middle of Nowhere in early March and released it on May 1. The album includes collaborations with Gregory Alan Isakov, Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson and Billy Strings, and it was introduced by the single “Dry Spell,” which peaked at No. 15 on Hot Country Songs in March.
The rollout now extends to the road. Her Middle of Nowhere arena tour is set to begin Aug. 21 in Chicago and run through the end of October, giving the album a live campaign that follows a release week already shaped by strong sales and a particularly robust vinyl showing.
On Top Album Sales, this is Musgraves’ third No. 1, and the streak is now consecutive. She previously led the chart with Deeper Well in 2024 and Star-Crossed in 2021. That sequence underlines a consistent commercial pattern, even as each project has arrived from a slightly different corner of her catalog.
The latest Top Album Sales chart is crowded at the top. Five other albums enter the top 10 this week: ILLIT’s MAMIHLAPINATAPAI at No. 3, The Black Keys’ PEACHES! at No. 6, Isaiah Rashad’s It’s Been Awful at No. 7, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live) at No. 9 and Tori Amos’ In Times of Dragons at No. 10. Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide slides to No. 2 after debuting at No. 1 the week before, BTS’ former leader ARIRANG holds at No. 4, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Number Ones both climb, moving 7-5 and 12-8, respectively.
